Chapter 130: Chapter 112: The Puzzle of Logic, Pieced Together
His eyes snapped open again.
Chu Bamboo shot up, threw on his jacket, and rushed out the door.
"???" Zhang Hai was completely baffled. He glanced around. ’What’s going on? Is someone after Chu Bamboo? But there’s no one else in the room besides us!’
"Wait, could it be because..." Zhang Hai realized something, his expression becoming a picture. He reached out a trembling hand. "Hey, even if you don’t want to join the God Worship Society, you could’ve just said so, right? I can pretend yesterday was a joke. As long as you didn’t just take the Cultivation Technique and run, it’s not a problem. Did you really have to bolt like this?"
Although the reason was equally ridiculous, Zhang Hai couldn’t think of anything else that would make Chu Bamboo act this way.
Wordlessly, Zhang Hai followed, planning to calm Chu Bamboo down. Then, he watched as Chu Bamboo burst into his room.
"?" Zhang Hai’s face turned green. Fortunately, when he scrambled into the room after him, he found that Chu Bamboo wasn’t rummaging for his little secrets under the bed. Instead, he had snatched the Ancient Relic sitting on his nightstand—a pair of binoculars.
"Borrowing these!" Chu Bamboo said succinctly. He didn’t even pause, leaving before Zhang Hai could answer.
Zhang Hai stood frozen in place for a long time, his face gradually contorting. He took several deep breaths, chanting inwardly, ’I owe him one. He’s a good guy.’ Only then did he barely manage to calm down.
Standing his ground, he pondered for a moment before his brow suddenly furrowed. ’He seems to be in a huge hurry. What happened... Did he suddenly remember something important he forgot to do?’
’Ah, forget it. Since he didn’t tell me, it must mean he doesn’t think he needs my help... It’s probably nothing serious.’
...
Chu Bamboo was sprinting at full tilt when he suddenly saw a dirt bike speeding down the road. His eyes lit up. With a slight tremor in his muscles, his speed exploded once more.
"Hey, buddy! I’m a patrol officer with the Police Chief Bureau, from the Special Operations Brigade," Chu Bamboo said gently.
"?? A ghost!" The motorcyclist’s body went stiff as he heard the voice carried on the wind. He was truly stunned. He hadn’t even pushed the throttle all the way, but his speed was still terrifyingly fast. To suddenly hear such a calm voice in his ear under these circumstances...
He shakily turned his head and saw Chu Bamboo, who was keeping up with him just by running. "???"
"K-Kung Fu?!"
A scene from a novel he’d read, about a miracle-working doctor descending from the mountains, flashed through his mind.
"You, me, this!" The motorcyclist hurriedly hit the brakes, slowly coming to a stop. Once his feet were on the ground, he pulled a wet wipe from his belt and stammered, "Th-this, Master, I! I!"
"I’m a patrol officer, not a Master... Please, this is an emergency! You can go to the Police Chief Bureau in the Third District and ask for Captain Li Kang of the Special Operations Brigade to sort this out! If there are no problems afterward, I’ll return it; if there are, the Police Chief Bureau will guarantee compensation." Chu Bamboo yanked the driver off the bike and swung himself onto the seat.
Then, he twisted the throttle to the max, pushing the bike to its absolute limit.
The driver watched, dumbfounded, as Chu Bamboo’s figure vanished like a bolt of lightning. His brain short-circuited.
...
’I hope I make it in time!’ Chu Bamboo’s mind raced. He was silently calculating. In the last timeline, even though he had chatted with Zhang Hai for a bit and formulated a plan, it had taken an hour at most!
Even accounting for his leisurely stroll to the Police Chief Bureau and stopping for a meal, it couldn’t have taken that long!
In other words, Gao Changming was likely inside the nuclear facility right now. If he rushed over at his top speed, he might still catch a glimpse of the facility’s entrance... Yes, all he needed was to know where the entrance was!
If he still couldn’t make it at this pace, then he would just have to miss today’s opportunity and wait for the next time Gao Changming entered the nuclear facility.
Based on his past experience, Gao Changming went out to resupply once every seven days, though these were smaller trips. Every month, the logistics department would conduct a major restock. So, if he missed this window, the soonest he could try again would be in seven days!
SWISH.
Chu Bamboo shot straight through the city gate.
"H-!" The city guard, who had his hand halfway out, turned pale, his body trembling with anger as he cursed, "Damn it! That bastard! These damn street punks, not even stopping at the gate! He almost hit me..."
He couldn’t even imagine the consequences if he’d been hit by that lightning-fast dirt bike—
Instant death would probably be the best-case scenario.
"I’m reporting him! That bastard, I’ll have him arrested."
"...Calm down, man!" His partner’s eye twitched. Noticing their commotion was attracting the attention of others in line, he tugged hard on his hysterical colleague’s sleeve and whispered in his ear, "That was an Ancient Relic! That person is definitely not ordinary."
"And he’s so brazen and young, maybe... he’s some young master from a noble family!"
These words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over the guard. He instantly calmed down and nodded. "You’re right, man! I got too worked up."
Taking a breath, he forced a smile onto his face. "What a fine ride by that young master! His moves on the bike were so... smooth, so cool! You can tell he’s an expert."
"Yes, yes!"
"Even though he was going so fast, he must have had absolute confidence! He knew he wouldn’t hit anyone, that’s why he did it, right? It’s understandable!"
"I think that must be it!"
And then, they acted as if nothing had happened...
The city guards went back to their duties.
What else could they do? Report it?
What if they really did run into someone they couldn’t afford to offend? That would be suicide. Besides, it’s not like the guy actually hit anyone—
If someone had actually died, they might have had the courage to pursue it...
...
The dirt bike sped through the dense forest, and Chu Bamboo felt a sense of exhilaration.
"No wonder so many people love to race..." Chu Bamboo remarked. Of course, racing through a dense forest was normally tantamount to suicide. But Chu Bamboo had been to the nuclear facility several times and had already scouted out a relatively smooth path.
’At the same time, my physical fitness has probably broken past eight by now? Maybe even nine?’
Under these conditions, his vision, reflexes, and thought process had all reached a level unimaginable for an ordinary person. Plus, he had slowed down a bit after entering the forest, so there wasn’t a major problem...
...
「At the foot of a hundred-meter-tall mountain.」
Chu Bamboo stopped the dirt bike. His figure was like a flash of lightning as he bounded to the summit in just a few steps, raised the binoculars, and gazed into the distance.
He was still some distance from the nuclear facility, but he had already deduced in his head that this area was a plain, and this mountain was the closest high point to the facility.
It was as the saying goes, "When I stand on the highest peak," and even if this mountain was only a hundred-odd meters tall, it was enough to get a commanding view of the surroundings.
"...Found it." Chu Bamboo’s pupils constricted slightly. In the distance, next to the nuclear facility, he saw a wheelless truck. He breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a bit surprised. Based on his previous calculations, he had thought it was more likely he wouldn’t make it! But now... hmm?
’No wheels? Is this a maglev vehicle too? A truck? Well, it’s not on the level of some hundred-ton behemoth... Judging by its size, it’s probably equivalent to an electric farm tricycle.’
Chu Bamboo was amazed. ’And here I was, wondering why there weren’t any roads! I nearly killed myself riding this dirt bike here... How on earth did Gao Changming and the others get here? So this is how...’
That explained it!
’No wonder I managed to catch up... If they’re using a maglev vehicle for transport, the return trip would be unobstructed. The timeline roughly matches up!’
’But maglev vehicles only just appeared in this timeline, right? In previous timelines, did they haul everything back bit by bit with a donkey cart...? It’s not impossible. Thinking back, it does seem like Gao Changming and his team distributed the resources a bit earlier yesterday!’
’According to my memories, they usually distributed them in the afternoon at the earliest... but yesterday, it was at eight or nine in the morning. Tsk tsk! The butterfly effect indeed.’
Chu Bamboo watched through the binoculars for a good while but couldn’t spot the entrance. He wasn’t in a hurry, though. He just watched quietly.
「A moment later.」
About halfway up the side of the nuclear facility, a large patch of vines was suddenly thrown open from within, revealing an opening!
Watching as Gao Changming and the others, each carrying a massive pack bigger than themselves, slid down the vines from the facility to the ground, Chu Bamboo was speechless. "..."
Holy cow! ’No wonder I could never find it from the ground. The entrance is halfway up the side? Who the hell designed this internal layout! It’s insane.’
’No, no, no... It’s also possible that the entrance was originally at ground level! But over time, geological changes, like erosion from heavy rain, gradually raised the entrance... But no matter how I think about it, it’s still ridiculous!’
Chu Bamboo was roasting them internally but kept a calm facade as he watched. The group went back and forth several times, filling about a fifth of the small maglev truck’s cargo bed before gathering beside it.
One person broke from the group, climbed back up, and went inside... Then, Chu Bamboo saw him come back out as a giant boulder was slowly pushed out from within, sealing the entrance.
The man inspected it for a moment, then covered it with vines again! He clapped his hands clean and slid smoothly down the vines to the ground.
Next, Chu Bamboo saw through his binoculars that they seemed to exchange a few words... then someone got into the driver’s seat!
There were eleven logistics personnel in total this time. Gao Changming was clearly not the leader of the eleven, but at most the captain of a small team.
Besides the two who sat in the passenger and driver’s seats, the remaining nine all piled into the cargo bed! Then, the maglev truck slowly floated up and sped off toward the city.
Chu Bamboo remained silent for a moment before lowering the binoculars. After a brief thought, he chuckled aloud. "Who would’ve thought? What a coincidence!"
Chu Bamboo recognized the person in the driver’s seat—
It was B2!
’Right, it’s basically confirmed now. The key that Big A and I were fighting for in the black box is the item needed to open that stone gate... I was wondering before, why would B2 want that thing?’
’But if he was a member of the Captain’s Office’s transport team all along and knew the inside story, then everything makes sense!’
Chu Bamboo stretched his wrists, which also resolved one of his long-standing puzzles... why B2 had been able to so easily wipe out his and Big A’s entire team before—
At that time, even though Chu Bamboo wasn’t a Transcendent yet, his skills were not to be underestimated, and their robbery supergroup even had guns! Yet they still got wiped out... Chu Bamboo had even reset once, gaining experience, but they were wiped out a second time. While he had suspected B2 was a Transcendent before, now he could basically confirm it!
More importantly, judging by the earlier interaction, Chu Bamboo deduced that B2’s status in the logistics department was higher than Gao Changming’s.
"Excellent," Chu Bamboo hummed a tune, happily sliding back down to the foot of the mountain. ’Now, all the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place!’
He narrowed his eyes. ’And now... it’s time to witness a miracle.’
